A Promise Kept
by EternalRandomChick
Summary: Chihiro's parents are killed in an accident and she is bullied at the foster home. But there is a dragon who must yet keep a promise. The thing is, when will he keep his promise.
1. A Promise Kept

**A/N: So, since I love Spirited Away as much as the next Miyazaki fan, I decided to try my hand at writing a fanfic. I know that the title of this is a song from Titanic, but it is not necessary to listen to it while reading this.**

**Another thing I feel I should mention, today is my birthday (WOOT! Seventeen years old!), so if you could leave some reviews, that will be a very pleasing birthday present.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except some original, minor characters. The rest belongs to the genius, Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.**

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Police officer Makoto Konoe absolutely hated this part of his job, telling a little girl or boy that their parents had died. This time was a very special case, because Yuuko and Akio Ogino had put their child in a mental institution a few years back when they had first moved to this town because young Chihiro had been spouting some nonsense tale about dragons and witches and bathhouses, of all things. The girl had recovered, but she had appeared to be mentally devastated, and Officer Konoe had no idea how she would take this news, but he decided not to dwell on it. He arrived at the school that they young girl was currently attending and went straight to the administrator's office.

"Konnichiwa," he greeted the school's principal. "Could you possibly tell me which classroom that young Chihiro Ogino is in?"

"She is in the classroom managed by Ms. Midori Baisote." the principal responded. "I'll take you there myself... If you'll tell me why you must see Miss Ogino."

"Her parents were killed in an accident." Officer Konoe reported. "From what we can see, the brakes and steering on their car failed, and they were sent off an unfinished dam."

"Ohh... That's rough for any child, loosing a family member." Principal Ayabito replied. "Since she has no family in the area, I suppose she'll have to be placed in an orphanage, or foster home, as soon as possible?"

"That's right." Officer Konoe replied. "So if she could have the rest of the day off to prepare for the move...?"

"Say no more." The principal said. "The request is reasonable. She'll need probably the rest of the day to recover from the initial shock, if she ever does." As soon as Principal Ayabito finished speaking, they stopped at the door of Ms. Baisote's classroom. "Wait here." Ayabito said, before opening the door. "Excuse me, Ms. Baisote, but could Miss Chihiro come out here for a moment?"

As soon as Principal Ayabito asked to see me in the hall, the entire classroom started teasing me, saying things like "Oooh, Chihiro's in trouble!" and "What did you do this time?"

"Quiet, class!" Ms. Baisote scolded them.

I gave her a nod of respect before heading towards the door. As I walked out, the principal came in and began conversing in whispers with Ms. Baisote. I thought that was odd, but I tried to dismiss it from my mind, which proved to be impossible when I saw the reason I had been called out to the hall. A police officer was waiting out in the hall, his head bowed and his hat in his hands. Immediately, my heart sank, that was never a good sign.

"Miss Chihiro, I'm Officer Makoto Konoe, and it is to my great regret that I must inform you that your parents have been involved in an automobile accident." the officer said. "From what we can deduce from the wreckage, the brakes and steering on their car failed and they were sent careening off a dam."

"Are they all right?" I asked. The officer gave no response, simply lifting his head and giving me a look of utmost sympathy. That was confirmation enough. "No." I gasped. Tears began forming in my eyes. Even though my parents had placed me in an asylum when we arrived here because of my stories of the spirit world, at the end of the day, they were still my parents, and I still loved them, and they had gotten me out of the nuthouse when they saw what it was doing to me. To have them suddenly taken from me... I didn't care that I was in the school hallway, I freely broke down and wept.

"Your principal has given you permission to go home for the rest of the day to collect your personal possessions." The officer said. "Since you have no other family or close kin anywhere in Japan, you must be moved to a foster home."

"I understand." I replied, numbly. I went back into the classroom to gather my backpack, not failing to notice the looks of sympathy my classmates were now giving me, now that they knew what had happened.

"Chihiro?" Miss Baisote asked, just as I reached the door. I looked towards her, silently acknowledging her. "I'm sorry." she said. My nod was the only indication I gave to tell her that I heard her. I barely registered anything as Officer Konoe guided me out to his police car and drove me to the empty blue house that my parents had moved to.

"Only get your personal belongings." Officer Konoe reminded me. "I'll be back later this afternoon to take you to the foster home." I nodded to him and went into the house.

My footsteps seemed to echo along the walls, reminding me of the loss. I tried to ignore the creepiness and ascended the stairs and went to my bedroom. The only thing that I really couldn't bear to part with was the purple hair-tie given to me by Zeniba and No-Face during my adventure in the spirit world, but I knew that I had to bring some clothes with me. It didn't take me long to finish packing, so I ran back down the road that took me to the entrance of the spirit world.

I gazed down the tunnel, not daring to cross the threshold. "Haku..." I whispered. "It's been five years. How much longer are you going to force me to wait?" No response came from the other side of the tunnel, so I finished saying my goodbyes and went back to the house to meet up with Officer Konoe and move to the foster home.

The administration at the foster home were polite and cared about the children, but the kids... Well, you know how teenagers can be. If they see another teenager who they can classify as weird, then the bullying will never stop. And since one of them had heard about what my parents had done because of the stories I told, before my first day at the foster home was out, everyone else knew of my little stay in the asylum.

After a year had passed, I was still living at the foster home, since there was nowhere else for me to go. If anything, the bullying had gotten worse, despite the administration's attempt to stop it. The only good thing about the foster home was that it was close to a river. Often after a particularly rough day, I would go and sit on the riverbank and talk to the river. I knew that it wasn't the Kohaku River, but talking to any river made me feel closer to Haku.

After one day when the bullying had particularly spiteful, I was lying down on my side looking at the river. "Haku... I don't know how much longer I can wait. Its getting so hard for me to live daily. You promised me that we would meet again. Did you lie to me?" As I spoke to the river, I felt incredibly exhausted. I let myself relax and I felt my eyes close. But just before the oblivion of sleep came over me, I could have sworn I felt someone watching me.

When I woke up, I felt a strange sense of detachment. As I got to my feet, memories came rushing back to me and I fell to my knees, crying into my hands.

"A girl as beautiful as you shouldn't be crying." I heard someone say. There was something familiar about his voice, but I couldn't place my finger on what it was. "What's wrong?" he asked me.

"My life has just gone completely downhill." I told him. He didn't respond, so I continued. "When I first moved here, I was placed in an insane asylum because of the stories I told of the spirit world. Even though my parents got me out after being in there for a year, they still treated me as some sort of freak. But they were still my parents, and I still loved them. They died last year, and now the kids at the foster home use me as a verbal punching bag."

The person gently placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Chihiro." he said.

I wiped away my tears, asking, "How did you know my name's Chi-" I broke off when I looked up... into Haku's achingly familiar jade-green eyes. He had matured, grown taller, and his hair was slightly longer, but there was no mistaking those eyes.

"Haku!" I gasped as I stood and threw my arms around him. I knew I was being impulsive, but I was so relieved to see him again. My tears of sadness were now mixed with tears of joy at his return. I was even happier when I felt his hand gently caressing my hair.

"I promised that we would meet again." He whispered to me. "And you don't have to worry about me leaving you. I promise you that I'll stay by your side for eternity." He pulled away, and I noticed that he seemed sad. "Come with me. Come back to the spirit world." He took my hand, turned, and began to pull me to the river.

I was eager to go, but I hesitated. "But I'm human. I don't belong there. Even though I want to go with you, I remember that most of the spirits don't take kindly to humans like me."

Haku looked even sadder when I said that. "Chihiro, haven't you noticed yet?" he asked, motioning with his head to something behind me.

I turned and gasped at what I saw. My own body was lying on the forest floor. I looked as though I had been sleeping when I died, but if one made further inspection, one could see that tears were forming beneath my eyelids, but I had died before they could fall. "What happened to me?" I asked, tears forming in my eyes once again.

Haku came back and gently hugged me again. I was shocked when I felt a teardrop hit my shoulder, and when I looked up, I saw that Haku was crying with me. "You simply gave up the will to live, Chihiro." He said. When he saw the confused look on my face, he continued, "I assure you, it is entirely possible for humans to die from having given up the will to survive."

He stepped away from me and transformed into the magnificent silver dragon from my dreams. When he motioned with his head, I climbed on his back and he took off, bringing me back to where I truly did belong.

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**A/N: I know the ending is a little rushed, I'm trying to get out of the house to go up to North Carolina and visit my cousins for my birthday weekend.**


	2. Drowning in Sorrow

**A/N: I had originally intended for this story to be a one-shot, but then I decided that I had to put some other characters into this story. As you can tell from the title of the chapter, this is a somewhat depressing chapter, even more so than the first chapter was. Don't worry, this story will have a happy ending. Rin doesn't yet appear in this chapter, but don't worry. She's one of the narrators in the next chapter (which will be the last chapter).**

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As soon as we crossed the barrier into the spirit realm, two things happened. The first thing was that my clothes suddenly turned into a beautiful snow-white kimono and my shoes disappeared, leaving me barefoot. But the second thing was that I could barely restrain myself from letting out a sudden wail of anguish. As it was, I pitched forward and began sobbing uncontrollably; losing my grip on Haku's horns in the process.

Immediately, Haku stopped flying and I tumbled to the ground, buried my head in my arms, and let my tears flow. Why I was crying when, truly, I had been brought home by the one I love, was beyond me, but it felt as though there was an overwhelming weight of sorrow on my shoulders and I was crumbling under it.

As soon as I fell, Haku had transformed back into his humanoid form and was now gently pulling me up so that he could look at me. "Chihiro, what's wrong?" he asked, and I could tell he was frantic.  
I shook my head. "I don't know!" I sobbed. "As soon we came here, I just felt sad." I tried to stop crying, since I could see that my tears were worrying Haku, but I couldn't.

"We need to get to the Aburaya." he said. "I don't know what's going on, but I bet Yubaba will know." I gasped in fear, since I had some more-than-unpleasant memories with Yubaba, but Haku gently stroked my cheek to comfort me. "She's changed, Chihiro. For the better. She gave everyone their name back, even though most of them prefer to go by the names that they had when she took their real names. You won't have anything to fear from her."

I nodded numbly, since now I had a feeling that Haku would eventually leave me joining with my burden of sadness and I did not trust my voice at all.

Haku didn't dare transform back into his dragon form; instead, he held me to him closely and used the wind to carry us into the window of Yubaba's office on the top floor of the Aburaya. I couldn't see the witch's face when we came in, since I was still crying into Haku's shirt, but from her voice, I could tell she was somewhat startled.

"Haku? What's going on?" she asked. "Why is that stinking human here again?"

"Yubaba, can't you tell?" Haku snapped at her. "Chihiro's dead in the human world, and I found her so that she could return here. But she seems trapped in sorrow, and I don't know what to do." He looked down at me and gently motioned with his head for me to turn around and fade Yubaba. I did so, but reluctantly. I knew that I looked a mess.

Yubaba gasped when she saw me. "Child, what happened to you during the last year of your life?"

"My parents were killed in an accident, and the other children at the foster house I lived at bullied me regularly." I managed to choke out. I hesitated to continue, but I did so that Yubaba could know the whole of my new condition, "and I began to give up hope that Haku would keep his promise." I heard Haku gasp behind me before he tightened his grip on my shoulder.

Yubaba nodded. "Sorrow and despair." she muttered. "The absolute worst conditions for one to die in."

"Yubaba, do you know what's going on?" Haku asked.

The witch nodded and began to tell. "The most prominent emotions that a formerly human spirit feels in our world are the last emotions they felt when they were alive. It's best if a human dies in peace, then they are usually untroubled and can feel all kinds of emotions upon their arrival in this world. But there are those who die in anger, fear, jealousy, despair, and other such emotions. And the worst emotions to feel upon death are sorrow and despair." She looked apologetically at me. "I'm not the one you need to see to fix this. My sister is the one who deals with new spirits who are trapped in sorrow and despair."

As she said that, the air in front of the fireplace began to crackle and bend. And then, on cue, Zeniba stepped out of the portal. She looked at her twin, and in that look, a silent conversation was made between them.

Zeniba looked over to where Haku held on to me and gently pried me from his grip. I suppose she was trying to stem the tears, but her attempts backfired on her as my tears began to flow even more freely.

As I sank to the floor, I felt Haku come back over to me as the twin witches discussed the necessary herbs for a special tea that would, hopefully, help to release me from the sadness that I was drowning in.

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**A/N: I know: I am a sad and depressing person. I promise you: this story will have a happy ending, but unfortunately, I'm having a small case of writer's block on that. I will upload it as soon as it is finished and I deem it fit to read. **


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